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THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
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THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd.
TORONTO
SECOND EDITION (THIRTEENTH IMPRESSION)
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON
1919
First Edition 1904.
Second Edition March 1905.
Reprinted August 1905, 1906, 1908, 1910, 1911, 1912, 1914, 1915, 1916,1918, 1919.
GLASGOW: PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO.LTD.
These lectures are based on a selection from materials used in teachingat Liverpool, Glasgow, and Oxford; and I have for the most partpreserved the lecture form. The point of view taken in them is explainedin the Introduction. I should, of course, wish them to be read in theirorder, and a knowledge of the first two is assumed in the remainder; butreaders who may prefer to enter at once on the discussion of the severalplays can do so by beginning at page 89.
Any one who writes on Shakespeare must owe much to his predecessors.Where I was conscious of a particular obligation, I have acknowledgedit; but most of my reading of Shakespearean criticism was done manyyears ago, and I can only hope that I have not often reproduced as myown what belongs to another.
[viii]Many of the Notes will be of interest only to scholars, who may find, Ihope, something new in them.
I have quoted, as a rule, from the Globe edition, and have referredalways to its numeration of acts, scenes, and lines.
November, 1904.
In these impressions I have confined myself to making some formalimprovements, correcting indubitable mistakes, and indicating here andthere my desire to modify or develop at some future time statementswhich seem to me doubtful or open to misunderstanding. The changes,where it seemed desirable, are shown by the inclusion of sentences insquare brackets.